Sharing, Caring, Helping, Protection and Cooperation by Mindfulness and Right Understanding.

16 October 2015

Part One : QA and Dhamma Discussion (USA)

Question and Answer
and Dhamma Discussion

with Overseas Disciple from USA (Part I)

QUESTION
: Sayadaw, how should we contemplate on if we experience pain during
meditation? Should we contemplate on the
pain as 'to be experienced-only'?

Sayadaw : The pain is to be experienced-only and not to
be taken as reality ... you need to understand and contemplate on in this
way. If not, you will be suffering from
the pain and take the pain as if it is meant for feeling (suffering).

If the
sensation is good, you will feel good but if the sensation is bad, you will
feel frustrated. In order to avoid this,
you have to keep on understanding the truth of just to be experienced only and
not to take the pain as reality.

Human mind can do only one thing
at a time. Human mind can focus only on
one thing at a time. By trying to
understand and contemplate on the truth and consider the pain as just to be
experienced-only, you will be able to abandon placing central emphasis on pain
as reality.

By nature, the degree of physical
pain could either go up or down, severe or weak, etc as it is beyond one's
control. In order not to place central
emphasis on this nature, it is important for you to remember and contemplate on
the truth of 'to be experience-only and not to centre your attention on the
pain'.

You need to train your mind to do
non-routine actions or works like this. By
doing so, your mind will stop focusing on usual and routine actions.

Don't Forget The
Truth

To use only ... To experience only ... To do only
... To know only

QUESTION : If this is the case, should we contemplate on
as 'things got destroyed just because their time is up and things got created
just because their time is up'?

Sayadaw : Contemplating on this way is not complete and
conclusive. It is also weak in truth as
the content percentage of truth in this statement is small. Superficially, the statement seems correct
but it is not a complete and conclusive understanding. 'Just to experience
only' is an ultimate truth. The pain is
to be experienced only. You should not place
central emphasis on pain as the truth.

'To be
experienced only' is non-rejection.

'Not to place central emphasis on
it' is non-attachment.

Not only the pain that you
experience during meditation, but also for all kinds of pains, sufferings and
happenings due to kamma actions (kammic efforts), you always need to understand
the truth of 'experience-only and not to take them as reality'.

As long as you understand and
contemplate on the truth, your actions can be considered as 'you are using the
truth in a right way' and 'experiencing and enduring all the pains and sufferings
in a right way'. It is called 'changing
the direction or actions of your mind'.

Traditionally people associate all
the good and bad feelings with 'I' ... 'this is good', 'this is bad', 'pain',
'ache', 'suffering', 'increasing', 'decreasing', etc. Mind is always working along those
traditional believes because it has been trained to do so over the years. Hence, in order to abandon mind from doing
traditional actions and dissociate mind from those actions, you always need to remember
the truth of 'experiencing only and not to take your actions as reality'.

By nature, human mind is capable
of doing multiple actions. Your duty is
to abandon multi-tasking of your mind but keep on doing single most important task
of 'abandoning' those multi-tasking of your mind.

Depending on the severity of the
pain, your mind will automatically be focusing on the pain and enduring the
pain. In order to abandon the habit of
your mind, e.g. automatically focusing and enduring the pain, you continuously
need to remember the truth of 'experiencing-only and not to take the pain as
reality'.

In other words, you must always remember
the truth of 'abandoning and not to take the pain as reality' in your mind.

'Abandoning' means to abandon all
kinds of created actions and actions which we always place central emphasis on,
e.g. pain, noise (sound), sight, taste, etc.
Your duty is to abandon placing central emphasis on those habitual
created actions and keep on doing non-habitual action of 'abandoning' continuously.

Do by abandoning ..... Do with
abandoning ..... Do to abandon.

QUESTION : You always remind people to 'do Good Deeds
continuously'. In my personal point of
view, Good Deeds means dana, sila and bhavana. Out
of these three, bhavana, which we traditionally understand is - to
keep your body in correct posture during meditation, observe our breathing
closely (concentrate on your nostril), etc.

In your point of view, what really is the action during meditation and
how to contemplate on? Please kindly
explain .....

Sayadaw : As far as practicing meditation is concerned,
the traditional understanding of most of the meditators (yogis) are not so
correct because they traditionally understand meditation as 'doing'. In truth and reality, practicing meditation
means 'abandoning', to abandon all your created actions and do the single most
important action of 'abandoning'.

Traditionally, we are taught to
'do' something during meditation. This is
the reason why most of the meditators always try to do something during
meditation. Moreover, we traditionally
believe that result can be achieved by doing or working hard, so we naturally
try to do something to achieve desired result.

The real meditation is 'abandoning',
doing nothing but 'abandoning', abandon placing central emphasis on living and
non-living things (beings).

Traditionally we use living and
non-living beings with grasping such as use living beings as my relatives, my
family, my race (ethnic group or nationality), etc with the mind action of
centering and attachment. In reality,
the ability that can use living and non-living things as abandoning purpose is
a real and genuine 'dana'.

If you do not do 'dana', you will
use living and non-living things with grasping, you will resort to all sorts of
methods and approach to earn money, you will use all sorts of ways and means to
widen up your circle of friends and connections, you will take living beings with
the mind action of grasping, etc. This
kind of understanding is not correct.

Doing real Good Deeds means
abandoning the grasping.

Traditionally we understand kaya kamma (physical
actions), vaci kamma (oral
actions) and mano actions (mental
actions) as 'actions to do'. Due to this
understanding, even during meditation, we automatically center our attention on
'doing this, doing that', 'saying right things and trying not to say wrong
things', etc. Those actions are called
observing sila in a traditional way.

The real and genuine sila is 'abandoning'
..... abandoning power to all physical and oral (verbal) actions.

We normally do not know how to use
living and non-living beings for abandoning purpose. This is the reason why we
always use them for grasping purpose.

As far as kaya kamma (physical
actions) and vaci kamma (oral
actions) are concerned, we tend to do all sorts of actions (activities) up to
our limits, we tend to say whatever we can say or whatever we wish to say, we
tend to do everything until there is nothing which we do not know how to do, we
tend to learn everything until there is nothing left for us to learn .... those
are the norms of human beings.

The real sila is to try to
'abandon' all those created physical and oral actions without placing central
emphasis on doing or not-doing. Real sila emphasises
only on the power of abandoning. As long
as you carry out your actions with the power of abandoning in mind, there is no
problem. But the problem is that we tend
to do things without the power of abandoning in mind. That is the reason why we cannot live without
doing anything, saying anything, etc. By
doing so, in long term, some might develop signs of mental disorders.

Dana, which we
traditionally understand is also 'doing something'. Human beings possess ability to do donations
but unable to abandon the mind action of grasping on living and non-living
beings along the way. This is the reason
why we always need to work so hard to earn money in order to do good deeds.

Dana

Ability that can use living and non-living things as abandoning
purpose.

Sila

Abandoning power to all physical and oral actions.

Bhavana

Abandoning power to all mental actions.

Panna

Abandoning power to any attachment concerning with physical, oral and
mental actions.

Daily activities to participate ….

ThaBarWa Centre or ThaBarWa Yeiktha is an ideal place for learning and practicing meditation as well as for helping others who have physical and mental limitations and difficulties.

Our center takes care of everybody, regardless of age, race and religion, who cannot support themselves and survive on their own due to various reasons and at the same time teaching them how to meditate and purify their mind.

The population of our centre is more than 2,500. By staying at our centre, you will have plenty of chances to experience and participate in the following activities …

1. Following the monks in their daily alms rounds and helping in distributing the alms food to infirm, old folks and meditators.

2. Taking care of and assisting infirm or old folks with their chores.

3. Visiting branches of ThaBarWa Centres (across Myanmar).

4. Learning Burmese culture and the people.

5. Attending insight meditation session and classes.

6. Helping in the kitchen, cooking and distributing food.

7. Helping in the health care, in the clinics and wards.

8. Helping in the library.

9. Assisting Venerable with management, IT and technology.

10. Visiting the mercy villages which were established (by ThaBarWa) for homeless and needy families and individuals.

11. Sharing your language, IT and technology knowledge and expertise with adults and Children of our centre.

Sayadaw Ashin Ottamasara

Please click the photo to visit Sayadaw's facebook

Biography

Sayadaw Ashin Uttamasara was born in Katha, Sagaing Division, Myanmar on Sunday 26th October 1969.

Since his youth he placed full value on education. He passed Matriculation in 1986 with flying colors. After completing a B.A (English, Honors) from the University of Yangon in 1992, he became a young entrepreneur and successful businessman within a short period of time.

Faced with difficulties and frustrations in running a complex business for 7 years, he sought refuge in the Dhamma in 1999. With the help of a Dhamma friend, he entered the Mogok Meditation Centre at Insein Monastery for a five-day meditation retreat, becoming initiated in Dhamma contemplation and practice.

From February 1999 to January 2002 he deeply concentrated on meditation. He became so devoted to Dhamma that he was able to reduce his business calmly, without much attachment.

For the propagation of Dhamma he donated all the assets he had accumulated during 6 years of entrepreneurship. He then concentrated on charity, morality and insight contemplation to find the perfect Truth.

In 2002, he was ordained in Yangon by Sayadaw U Nayyasagara and started to teach Vipassana Insight Meditation.

Today, Sayadaw teaches Dhamma and Guided Vipassana Insight Meditation in various institutions, schools, hospitals and individual residences in Myanmar and other countries.

Sayadaw remains a well-known name throughout the shores of Myanmar and beyond.

Thabarwa is a place for everyone!!

Thabarwa Center is a non-profit humanitarian organization working for a noble cause.

We provide a home sweet home for everybody (both for locals and foreigners alike), unconditionally.

We open 24 hours a day, seven days a week without recess.

The activities of Sayadaw Ashin Uttamasara and Thabarwa Center are wide and various, serving the spiritual and physical needs of thousands from far and near.

More and more visitors from all over Myanmar and abroad are coming daily to visit, learn meditation and volunteer their skills and time in caring for those taking refuge at Thabarwa Center.

Good deeds at Thabarwa

• Providing refuge not only for meditators but also for the old aged, homeless, orphans, loners, infirm and the people with physical and mental difficulties.

• Currently more than 2,500 people (as of October 2015) taking refuge at our centre.

• Providing health care, food, clothing, shelter, clean water for cooking and drinking, etc. and offering aids and support for free of charge.

• Solving day to day problems of centre residents, meditators, volunteers and visitors.

• Communicating and cooperating with volunteers, charities, non-profit organizations and philanthropists from Myanmar and abroad.

• Conducting daily Vipassana Insight Meditation and Dhamma Talks.

• Conducting retreats in the traditions of renowned vipassana meditation masters. All the meditation methods are being utilized without attachment to any particular method.